Project Approach

Pump up the volume and hit play!

From its origins New Belgium has been a pioneer defining themselves as a unique company so the process to develop a new office environment should include the same pioneer spirit. Typical office space like cubical farms for the masses won’t address your needs for a high functioning work environment. New Belgium coworkers deserve a space as unique as the employee owners that make up this creative culture. Work environments are ever changing to accommodate the needs of a current project, varying team members, fluid technology and the evolving employee. The space you provide for employees should provide a backbone to support a variety of layouts allowing for extreme flexibility along with short and long term solutions.

Take a look at the attached video to get an idea of thoughts and conversations our design team has had regarding your office addition. You’ll note the key ingredient missing from the conversations is YOU!

The first step in the process is to understand the outcomes for the new space. Some of these are quantifiable like developing a program of your department requirements. Different departments have different space and environment requirements like Planning and Design compared to Accounting. Others are more subjective like the feel, acoustics, daylighting, building envelope, flexibility, variety of uses, desk heights, colors, themes, sustainability goals, human comfort, visual aesthetic, image, etc. All of these variables and more are flushed out during a “process of discovery” where you’re encouraged to dream a vision of what could be. Your values, beliefs and project requirements help guide the project parameters for the design team.

Your staff deeply understands the needs of NBB and our team brings extensive of experience in creating work place change. Working as a team with your staff, our designers, architects and consultants we’ll lead you along a creative process that is filled with exploration. Past clients and project team members are regularly surprised at the things they discover about themselves and the project that they couldn’t have predicted. It’s those unique findings that provide the energy for the design of your new space. Our own multi-disciplined approach encourages input from everyone regardless of experience. The dynamics of the interactions create a unique collaboration.

During work sessions our creative team leads you through the process with hand drawn sketches that help you visualize concepts enabling deeper conversations to quickly test many options. In parallel, our consultants are working through the details of the building systems to find synergies that will lend to greater efficiency and lessen the impact on the environment. Once we’ve developed a series of design aesthetics that you’d like to explore further, we’ll bring in our animation department to model the ideas and show you design options in the context of the existing site. From our experience with New Belgium’s master 3D models, we understand the power of the tool in understanding the intricacies of the project elements. Little things like being able to see how light moves across the space, how materials juxtapose existing building components or how tour route access flows on the site all contribute to the best possible solution.

Another consideration in today’s world is the volatility of the construction market. With our expertise in both design and construction, we can provide guidance regarding the rapid changes in the market and how to minimize the cost risks moving forward. Desired costs can be estimated as the design develops.

At The Neenan Company, we understand what multi-disciplined collaboration work environments require. Recently we moved our offices to reuse existing industrial space and decided to use our office as a working experiment testing finishes, layout, furniture and flexibility. The nature of our business requires us to be able to relocate quickly to accommodate changing teams and projects in 10 minutes. Our client’s reap the benefit of that experience and knowledge.

The Neenan Company has a long history working with New Belgium and have witnessed firsthand the growth from the C&S depot to a B-Corp with over 500 employees and beyond. At the end of the day it’s about the quality of interactions that occur between individuals that creates a dynamic and unique building solution. New Belgium deserves to have the focus and attention of a design team that is local and able to accommodate your busy schedules while taking care of your coworkers needs. We have built a base of knowledge of New Belgium over the years and trust in our partnership. There is no doubt we are bullish on New Belgium and its success. We look forward to expanding the Mothership and bringing everyone back together under one roof.

WORKPLACE OFTHE FUTURE

Designing an office of the future isn’t a cookie cutter task. Several factors and theories are taken into consideration. Most importantly, the users themselves. Working with clients to develop office solutions is an exciting process. Each company’s needs are unique as is the discovery process to understand the company and work patterns yielding the best design solution. Company culture (or desired culture) and staff interaction levels greatly influence the space. A design can’t begin without you!

Collaborative, gathering, and focus spaces all need to be in balance with your needs. Increasing group spaces results in more interdepartmental relationships and collaboration. These spaces allow people who don’t often work together to cross paths, encouraging conversations that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Improving relationships and familiarity between departments increases trust and interaction. Flexibility should be the undercurrent that allows you to continually tweak your environment to accommodate changing needs.

OnCore Manufacturing’s focus was visibility and accessibility between management, office and manufacturing staff. The unique solution and layout achieved their goals while also highlighting their new and improved facility during potential client visits. CDOT Region 4 Headquarters wanted to transition from a traditional closed office/cubical environment to an open office collaborative space attracting younger employees. The challenge was addressing the current staffs’ concerns regarding lack of privacy. By getting feedback and involvement from existing staff they created buy-in and excitement for the new space.
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